Woman without ride from jail allegedly breaks into cars at Sheriff's Department

Sue Thackeray

Published 6:00 pm, Tuesday, March 8, 2005

Christina Dennis, 21, of Montgomery, was arrested by Magnolia Police officers for public intoxication in the early morning hours of March 1, but she apparently didn't have a ride back to Magnolia after she was released from the jail later that afternoon.

"She said needed money to get back to Magnolia," said Conroe Police Sgt. Bob Berry. "She started breaking into cars in the Sheriff's Department parking lot and worked her way up to Ford Realty, located at 305 Cartwright Road, where two people there caught her breaking into a (sport utility vehicle) and detained her."

When Conroe Police officers arrived, they found $274 in cash and coins, an open carton of cigarettes, sunglasses, perfume and a lighter in Dennis' backpack, Berry said. Those items were later confirmed stolen from three vehicles in the area.

Dennis was arrested and charged with three counts of burglary of a motor vehicle. Three outstanding Conroe traffic warrants were also served on Dennis, and she was placed back in the Montgomery County Jail, Berry said.

Sheriff's Department spokesman Lt. Dan Norris said there haven't been many problems in the past with prisoners just released from the jail committing crimes in the immediate area of the Sheriff's Department.

"There has not been any kind of history of this that I'm aware of," Norris said. "It just sounds like a criminal continuing to be a criminal."

When inmates are released from the jail, all the property, including cash and credit cards, they had when they are arrested is returned. The inmates also have access to a pay phone both before their release inside the jail and after their release in the lobby of the Sheriff's Department.

In most cases, jail employees do not usually find rides for inmates released from the jail but will occasionally help arrange rides if the inmate is in poor health or mentally disabled.

"We are constantly pressured to maintain the presence of officers on the street, and it would be an inefficient use of their time to have them transporting prisoners back home from the jail," Norris said. "We're not in the business of providing a taxi service."

Norris added that he is not aware of any law enforcement agency in the country that provides such a service.